Markets hold on to early gains

Capital goods and banks among the top gainers

Markets continue to hold on to its early gains with the Sensex up 134 points at 18,843 and the Nifty added 41 points at 5,716 on the back of gains in L&T, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.

In the broader markets, the midcap and the smallcap indices have added 0.8% each outperforming the Sensex which was up 0.7%.

Asian shares rose on Tuesday but were capped by concerns over global growth prospects, especially in the world's second-biggest economy China, and expected weak U.S. corporate earnings. Shanghai Composite advanced nearly 2% along with Hang Seng up 1% on hopes for policy support from Beijing. Meanwhile, Nikkei slipped 1%.

All the sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in the positive territory. The ones leading the gains were Health Care, Capital Goods, Consumer Durables, Metal and Bankex indices up 1% each. 

The top gainers among the Sensex-30 in the noon deals were L&T and Tata Power up 2% each followed by Cipla, Dr Reddys Lab, Sterlite, Sun Pharma, Jindal Steel, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank and Hero MotoCorp which added 1-1.8%.

Among the losers were Bharti Airtel, BHEL, Bajaj Auto and NTPC down 1% each. Gail India and Wipro down 0.6% each were the other notable losers.

In individual stocks, Emkay Global Financial Services has continued its southward journey and locked in lower circuit of 10% at Rs 25.25 for a third consecutive day on the NSE.

Shares of Kingfisher Airlines fell for the seventh day in a row today, plunging by nearly 5% to hit the lower circuit limit on bourses. The cash-strapped airline lost 4.76% to touch the lower circuit limit of Rs 12 on the BSE.

Shares of Vijay Mallya led UB Group Companies - United Spirits, United Breweries and United Breweries Holding have recovered from their yesterday's fall and trading higher by 4-6% each on the NSE.

Telecom stocks such as Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication are trading weaker by 1-3% each on the Bombay Stocks Exchange after the empowered group of ministers imposed a one-time fee on incumbent operators prospectively for spectrum beyond 4.4 Mhz in GSM and 2.5 Mhz in CDMA. The cut of deadline will be the date when the cabinet clears the proposal.

The market breadth was positive.1,535 stocks advanced while 1,074 stocks declined on BSE.